Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

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  • Hello Dolly!

    Last night was technically the New Moon, although there was nothing to see in the sky.  At the Full Moon, I pulled a card to see whose energies would be leaving me and it was, thankfully, the slightly peevish Knight of Cups.

    But now that the moon is set to wax again, I want to know whose energies will grow within me until the moon is full once again.  And the card drawn is The Queen of Wands *high fives anyone passing by*

    I’m very fond of the Queen of Wands, and Kat Black’s young queen from the Touchstone Tarot is an absolute corker!

    Kat’s deck is a painstaking collage of artworks sourced from 16th and 17th century Europe and this particular Queen of Wands has the body of a young Princess Elizabeth I and that gloriously knowing face belongs Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria.  To me, the expression reminds me – a little – of our current Queen Elizabeth (Happy Diamond Jubilee if you are reading this, Your Maj) as a young woman – although she was not quite so……bold.

    The black cat of intuition and feline wiles sits patiently in her lap as the Queen of Wands gazes out at you with a come-hither expression.

    The Queen of Wands is associated with all those active, can-do attributes of the realm of Wands. As seen in the Minchiate post – this is not always positive and she can be a bit of a stirrer with that big stick of hers….clearly I’ll be trying to avoid THAT particular attribute!  However, on the whole, this is a woman who sees obstacles as opportunities and is confident in her own skills and skin.

    This is a woman who whistles before breakfast.

    Well, I could certainly do with a quick shot of the Queen of Wands through my sinews I can assure you!  I was supposed to go for a run today, but I took one look out at the wet, miserable morning and opted to write a blog post instead.  Clearly her energies are going to be sloooooow to materialise over the next  couple of weeks!

    What do you think of Kat Black’s Queen of Wands? What might she bring to your life?

    BTW – there is a copy of this deck for sale on amazon for over £400! WTF?! as the Queen of Wands might say!

  • Barbara Moore | Aly Fell | Steampunk Tarot | Page of Swords

    Meet the Page of Swords from the forthcoming Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore with art by Aly Fell.  Barbara very kindly agreed to answer a few questions about her new deck and about this Page of Swords in particular:










    What
    inspired you to make this type of deck?

    “Nearly 20 years
    ago, during my role-playing game days, I discovered the concept of
    steampunk (does anyone remember Castle Falkenstein?), although I
    don’t think most of us regular folk called it that; literary types
    most certainly were, though. For anyone who loves sci fi, from Star
    Trek to Firefly to Dr. Who and anything in Victorian period clothing,
    steampunk is a very happy world, indeed.

    “Sometime in
    2005, during a discussion about man and machine, the past and the
    future, nature and technology, and, of course, fashion, a colleague
    suggested that I make a steampunk-themed tarot. Knowing it was a very
    niche, sub-genre, I filed the idea away, thinking I had plenty of
    time before developing the idea and presenting it to my publisher.

    “Shortly
    thereafter, in 2006, I started collecting links to websites and
    portfolios of artists that might be a good match for the deck.

    “And then, in
    2009, a great publisher of fantasy and science fiction, Tor,
    proclaimed October to be Steampunk Month. That’s the day I began
    writing the card descriptions that had been taking shape in my mind
    for nearly four years. They must have been ready to manifest, because
    once I began, they flowed almost effortlessly, as if channeled from
    somewhere other than myself, as if from another time and place that
    never was.

    “In January 2010,
    after two months of intense searching for an artist, I found     Aly
    Fell’s website    …in particular, his image called Judith
    (which later was modified and is now our Queen of Cups). I knew the
    moment I saw that picture that I wanted Aly on this project. What did
    I do? I wrote a long email to a perfect stranger asking him if he
    would be interested in taking on the task of giving line, color, and
    composition to my words, bringing them to life. As luck would have
    it, he was interested. In addition, he did know a little something
    about tarot.

    “Prior to illustrating, UK-based Aly was
    an animator on TV shows such as Dangermouse and Count Duckula,
    eventually working for a spell in computer games. He now illustrates, particularly
    enjoying creating strong female characters, and his work has been
    published in Spectrum, Exotique, and Expose. He is also the co-editor
    of two fantasy art collections, and his art has been featured on the
    cover of magazines such as ImagineFX. He and his wife like to travel
    to as many places as they can and enjoy the dark side of culture,
    being fairly active on the Goth scene.

    “Aly is a bit shy, but do visit his
    wesite, Dark     http://www.darkrising.co.uk/
    and his blog, Port Out Starboard Home     http://alyfell.blogspot.com/

    Did
    you submit detailed briefs to the artist for the Court images you
    wanted?

    “I
    submitted detailed briefs on every card except the courts. For the
    courts, I had a more like schema…I wanted certain cards to be
    certain genders and certain suits to be in certain locations. It as
    all beautifully worked out and perfectly balanced. Then Aly kind of
    threw all my beautiful organization out the window and sent me
    individuals rather than representations of the stiff the flow chart
    of whatever that I sent him.

    “So
    our courts were, out of all the cards, more of a journey together
    than the others. He would send ideas, I would say “yes, but” or
    “no, but this…” In the end, we have peopled our deck with some
    fascinating and unforgettable characters.”

    Is The Steampunk Tarot an RWS style deck?

    “Yes,
    deliberately so”.

    I
    luff this Page of Swords, t    here’s
    an air balloon behind her – is that common to all the Pages or to the
    Swords as a symbol?

    “I’m
    glad you like her. I think she is incredibly adorable and sassy. One
    thing I’ve learned doing this deck is that the very nature of
    steampunk is that of individuality rather than consistency.
    Consequently, except for the suit designators, there are no
    consistent symbols in the courts. The Knight of Swords has dirigibles
    in the background (and if I remember correctly, I had to beg Aly to
    put them in, but I cannot remember why he didn’t want them).”


    I
    love her sharp haircut – very Swords! – was that deliberate?

    “Not
    in that I had the cleverness to say “give her a sharp haircut” (I
    wish!), but in that the description, the type of person we wanted to
    show would be sharp and clear in every way.         So,
    let’s say that it is deliberate although it may not have been
    conscious.”

    What’s
    the story with this Page? Why is she on the seashore for example?

    “Of all the Pages, the Page of Swords is the least
    patient and the most prepared, at least in her own opinion, to face
    her new adventure, whatever it is. She reminds me of the young men
    from landed families who went to WWI as officers. They were raised on
    the ideals of Britain and completely certain of their own immortality
    and destiny. They were smart (I imagine most of them were well
    educated). They believed in themselves and were believed in by
    others. So much was placed on them. But as it turns out, they were
    not really prepared for what they had to face and afterwards returned
    damaged and no one knew how to help them. If this Page reaches out to
    you, try to scratch below the bravado and see if she really is ready
    for what she is about to take on.     Maybe stick close to her and lend a
    hand whenever she lands.

    “In terms of symbolism here, the
    military outfit represents a logical and regimented attitude. It is
    freshly pressed, clean, and shiny. It is still theoretical and she
    has not been able to apply it “in real life” yet. The hot air
    balloon…well, obviously it represents air. And being a balloon
    rather than a plane or even a dirigible, it seems younger, more
    childish in a way. Also, something that I think someone with less
    experience would start with. Plus, there would be less people in it,
    so less responsibility, which is only right at this stage in her
    career. Why is she on the shore? It’s a good way to represent
    starting out on a long journey to new places. Plus water, especially
    large bodies of water, represent the soul, so it is a nod to the idea
    that she’ll be learning about herself as she learns about the
    world. That in fact, what she know about life, herself, and her ideas
    of how life is supposed to work will all be affected by her
    experiences “out there.”

    Have
    you joogled around the Court sexes a little?!

    “Not
    sure. In some ways, but not as much as you’d think. The pages are
    all female except on looks androgynous (I call her female, but he
    could be a pretty male). The knights are also all female save the
    Knight of Pentacles. The queens are all female and kings are all male
    (how dull of me, right?).”

    Do
    you have the LWB definition for the Page of Swords that you could
    share with me for the blog?

    “Well,
    nothing so pithy as that. I see the courts a bit different than other
    people, but without explaining the whole system, I see the pages as
    having the least sphere of influence but being the easiest to manage.
    If you need a warm body or an assistant, look for a page. For this
    page in particular, I say:

    “When the Page of Swords is involved in
    your situation, you may either have your hands full or have a helpful
    ally…or both! She will bring clarity and insight that you may not
    expect from one with her lack of experience. Of course, she will
    question everything and demand clear and complete explanations and
    then explain to you all the weaknesses therein. If you are looking
    for someone to help you analyze a plan of any sort, proof read any
    communication, or test an organizational system, this Page will be
    invaluable. She is ready to see how she can apply her natural talents
    to world at large.”


    Many thanks to Barbara for talking with me about this new and beautiful deck!

    The Steampunk Tarot will be available in May 2012, but you can pre-book on Amazon here: 




  • One Singer, One Song | Which Courts?

    Voted #412 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, here’s a story and a half from Ms Bobbi Gentry…..

    There has been much speculation about what it was that was thrown of the Tallahatchie Bridge, my own 70s brain, boggled to the consistency of jello by a diet of Top Cat, Scooby Doo and The Double Deckers decided that they threw A BABY off the Bridge.  I *know*  SO Jerry Springer of me.

    But there are other, less macabre, suggestions such as a wedding ring, Billy-Joe’s draft card or even an LSD bottle.   Bobbi Gentry said that even SHE didn’t know what it was!

    What do you think it was the two young people threw into the deep waters below?  Would it depend on the two Court Cards doing the chucking? If Billy Joe is a troubled King of Cups, would he fling himself into oblivion at the thought of going off to war?  Would a Queen of Wands with dreams of a bright future fling an unwanted child off it?  What would the Page of Cups and the Page of Pentacles not want anyone to know about?!
    Clearly defined characters abound in this song – from the family casually discussing Billy-Joe’s death in the same breath as ‘pass the pumpkin pie’…. to how Ma deteriorates after Daddy dies after an illness.

    I believe in leaving you something INSANELY cheeful for the weekend. Not. 😀

    Have a great weekend!

  • My Family | Minchiate Courts

    Thought I would start a regular meme where we can look at the Courts of various decks – especially decks that are a bit different to the RWS style.

    Have you ever taken a look at the Minchiate Tarot? It’s massive!  Not only are there your standard Major Arcana cards (give or take one or two), Minors and Courts – but all the Zodiac cards, Virtues and Elements, giving a grand total of 97 cards.  I *know*.  Fascinating.  Murder to learn though 🙂

    The Court Cards are intriguin.  Of course, they are a the sort of courts that can make you weep because not only is there a dearth of helpful symbolism, but their names aren’t even on the cards.

    The accompanying book offers a fascinating insight into how THESE courts are to be interpreted.

    This is the Sword family – running from King on the left down to the Knave on the right.
    The book, by Andrea Vitali, defines them as:
    Knave – Young man who causes suffering
    Knight – Man who vehemently inflicts pain
    Queen – Authoritarian woman who inflicts pain as a means to an end
    King – Authoritarian man who causes pain without having to justify his actions
    Yes, in this deck, Swords are simply ‘painful situations’ – think of their Swords used solely for hurting.
    Wands don’t fare much better. Here’s their family:
    And here’s what the Minchiate book says about them…..
    Knave – young man who creates problems
    Knight – young man who creates problems with certain outbursts
    Queen – ambiguous woman who creates problems
    King – authoritarian man who creates problems without having to justify his actions
    Yep – Wands are aaaaaalllll about problems – think of their Wand as a wooden spoon, stirring it!
    Do the Cups family score any better?

    Of course, this time I scanned the Cups with the Knave to the left and the King on the right.  Consistent? You must be getting me mixed up with someone else…..
    Knave – Young woman offering gifts
    Knight – Youn man who offers positive opportunities regularly
    Queen – Authoritarian woman who acts out of affection as an end to a means
    King – Authoritarian man who offers gifts, affection, love and help without having to justify himself to anyone
    Clearly the Cups are regarded as uniformly positive guys (the book calls them ‘positive situations’) – think of that cup as a loving gift to someone.
    And what of the Pentacle clan?  
    ….and back to King on the left and Knave on the right….like I said, consistency is not my strong suit 😉
    The book describes the realm of Coins as ‘Happy Situations’, so they’re going to be Goodies.
    Knave – a young woman who creates situations that bring happiness
    Knight – a man, present for a long time, who offers love, availability and great affection.
    Queen – an authoritarian woman who intentionally inflicts pain …….

    WWWWoooooooaaaaa *slams on brakes* This is clearly an error.  I checked with the Italian words in the same book and then typed off a query missive to Lo Scarabeo .  They kindly (and immediately) replied with the correct translation ‘an authoritive woman who gives good things for the right reason.’

    King – an authoritarian man who offers beautiful things without having to justify himself.

    Actually,  Andrea Chiarvesio of Lo Scarabeo suggested replacing ‘authoritarian’ with ‘authorotative’ for that definition – which could then apply to the other Queens that have been labelled that way. This makes them all feel a bit less imperious, don’t you think?

    So the Minchiate Courts are full of Kings who answer to no-one and Queens who act consciously with an outcome in mind.  The Swords and Wands are without doubt troublesome characters in the Minchiate with no redeeming features whatsoever and the Cups and Pentacles are the families whom you want living next door.

    And the Knight of Pentacles seems to be Mr Right…..  Something that I hadn’t much considered.  But, now that I think about the RWS knights – aren’t the Knights of Wands and Swords the first into battle and the dogged Knight of Pentacles the one who remains there after the other three have left the field? Yep he would do me fine as Mr Right 🙂

    Do the descriptions of the Minchiate Courts rock your own thoughts about particular courts – or could they add clarity?
    What do you think? 
    Copyright information:  Deck: Minchiate, Published by Lo Scarabeo, accompanying book written by Andrea Vitali
    You can buy it here

  • The Courts on Valentine’s Day

    Yeah, so it’s a commercially-driven marketing man’s dream and has no direct relation to the poor Saint who was kebabed with arrows.

    And no, I didn’t get one.

    Our Tarot courts are made up of lots of characters with distinct personalities and today is a good day for looking at how the various court members relate to each other.

    Take out your court cards and lay them down in random pairings and just look at how they physically relate to each other….. forget what you KNOW and just look at The Body Language 😉

    If the King and Queen of the same suit are facing each other – does it mean they are devoted to each other, or so wrapped up in their relationship they are neglecting other important matters.  What if she’s looking out at YOU and he’s looking at HER?  Has she got a wandering eye?!

    What happens if you swap them around? She’s still looking at you, but is he turning a blind eye?!

    If they are facing away from each other – does this mean that they don’t see eye to eye or are they confident enough in each other that they can pursue their own interests without worrying about each other?  Or are they each wrapped up in their own interests at the expense of their relationships?

    In mixed suit pairings – are there Kings and Queens who look happier together than with their allocated suit partner?!

    What about a Queen and a Knight? If she is looking at the Knight of another suit, does it mean that she’s got designs on a younger, more exciting man? If it’s her own Knight – could she be a helicopter mother?!

    Kings and Knights – if they are looking in the same direction – is the King wishing he could recapture his own Knightly qualities?  Looking towards each other – an alliance between a senior and a junior?

    What about the Pages – do Pages that stand back to back dislike each other? Not understand each other?

    What might the various cards’ gestures mean to the card you have paired it with?

    Done them all?  Shuffle and do it again!!!

    This little exercise can take ages – does it yield any additional insights for you with your court personalities?

    Deck:  Rider Waite Smith.  Copyright US Games.  Artwork Pamela Colman-Smith.

  • Knight of Pentacles | Dan Donche | Darkana Tarot

    This Knight of Pentacles certainly differs from most other Knight of Pentacles that I’ve seen, and I like him all the better for it!


    Dan Donche, the artist behind this forthcoming Darkana deck (and smarty-pants GENIUS behind the hilariously Inappropriate Tarot Readings) hasn’t done the LWB for his deck yet, so I’m just going to go with my own thoughts about this guy and you can tell me what you think.

    Pentacles is the suit usually associated with the element of Earth and all the Knights are associated with the element of Air. So he’s a mixture of Earth and Air – traditionally, that’s a mix that doesn’t sit comfortably together.  You can read more about the rules of Elemental Dignities on Paul Hughes-Barlow’s Super Tarot website here.

    So, for me, this guy has a conflict between how he thinks (Fast and Airy, like a Knight) and how he acts (slow, dependable and Earthy, like a Pentacle)



    His head moves faster than the rest of him! 

    Dan has his Knight of Pentacles on a motorbike – by far and away the speediest Knight of Pentacles I’ve seen for some time! I’m not sure what sort of bike it is, but it looks kind of vintage to me, so I’m going for a cafe racer style.

    These date from around the 1960s but are getting pretty popular again….but they are not the fastest bikes on the planet.  And, for me, that steed quite suits the Knight of Pentacles. 

    I’m not sure what Dan’s other Knights might be doing – but I’m wondering whether they might be on other motorbikes – maybe a blue Japanese sports’ bike, like a Suzuki for the Knight of Swords, a sleek scarlet Italian Ducati for the Knight of Wands……maybe the Knight of Cups could be on a dirt bike?!  

    The point being – the Cups and the Pentacles guys would be on the slower machines, with the Wands and Swords guys on the madly fast machines.  Maybe? Well, we’ll see soon enough!  rubs hands together*  Can’t wait to see!

    I absolutely love Dan’s chosen artwork style for this deck – a sort of grunge, graffiti style that reminds me a great deal of Banksy’s work. Here’s an example of one of Banksy’s stenciled graffiti works in London:

    Snort:  Banksy

    With ‘snort’ a white trail of paint was followed through the streets of the capital which ended here, at the drug-taking copper.  Witty and politically pointed.

    Dan says: “The Darkana Tarot Deck combines a modern grunge style with non-traditional tarot symbolism. Every image is personally designed by me……this deck is everything I want to convey.

    “Most decks end up being representations of the Rider-Waite deck, which doesn’t offer a lot in the way of new, groundbreaking material out there. It is my opinion that the best tarot decks challenge current views and inspire. One way I seek to do that is by using more modern symbolism with clever artistic techniques, all packaged into a current style that’s both rich in context and appealing.”


    Sounds great doesn’t it?!

    Dan has keywords on the bottom left corner of his card – for this Knight it is Stubborn Obsessive.  The stubbornness is undoubtedly a Pentacles trait…..and obsessiveness – could be Airy?  According to the Golden Dawn attributions, two thirds of the Knight of Pentacles astrological associations are with Virgo (the other third is in Leo).  And Virgo is pretty obsessive! 

    The Court Cards can be associated with different Astrological signs – lots of different systems exist and if you want to use one, just pick one and learn it!  

    If you would like to see more of Dan’s forthcoming deck – or even donate a few shekels to help him get it published – you can see more here

    So – what do YOU think of this Knight of Pentacles?

  • Whitney Houston | Queen of Charts

    Forty-eight, that’s all she was.

    But the bubble-permed Queen of the 1980s Charts  had perished a long time before, lost beneath the waves of her turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown and years of substance abuse.

    Which court card encompasses the dark struggle of these last years, do you think?

  • Pick a card!

    You don’t need to know anything else about this chap other than what’s in the newspapers about him – and you don’t even need to like football to take part.

    Have a think about which Court Card Harry Redknapp represents for you…..and then turn your cards until you hit the first court card in your deck.

    In what way is Harry Redknapp (in this story) like the random court character card you have turned?

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/08/redknapp-trial-harry-held-court  <- here’s the story!

    So – what was the card you chose – and what was the random card?!

    Happy Thursday peeps!

  • One Singer, one song, but which Court Cards?

    So, here’s a little whimsy to get us eased into Wednesday – there are two well-define characters in this song (and I am NOT apologising for luffing a bit of Kenny Rogers) *defiant face*.

     Which Court Cards do you think they might be – right-sides up or reversed?

  • And it’s Good Knight from him!

    There are lots of spreads that you can do to mark the passing stages of the moon.  Last night was a full moon, so I thought about whose personality energies would be now lessening their grip on me from here to the Dark Moon.

    Of course, when it’s the Dark Moon, I’ll be looking to see whose energies are going to become more powerful as we draw towards the next Full Moon.  There are lots of variations on this reading theme, but that’s the two that we’ll initially be looking at.

    The card drawn was The Knight of Cups.  And here he is;

    Copyright info:  Published by US Games
    Words/Art – A E Waite/Pamela Colman-Smith
    You can buy it here:   
                                                                                         
    This is one of two Knights in the Rider Waite Smith deck that I’d quite like to give a damn good shake. Look at him, trotting around totally absorbed by the Cup in his grasp.  I could smack him.
    His character is similar to the river that runs through the card: it slowly twists and turns through the countryside.  It meanders.  The Knight of Cups meanders.  This is a Knight who is in grave danger of disappearing up his own ass if he doesn’t rouse himself from the adoration of his Cup to some kind of action.  
    He’s a Knight – the Knights are not supposed to demonstrate the maturity of their Kings and Queens.  It’s their job to QUEST and to seek for that elusive THING and he’s seeking something in that Cups of his.  
    Frankly, I’m tired of looking for The Knight of Cups Thing.  You know The Thing.  The Thing that will Make You Emotionally Fulfilled.  If you’re lucky, you won’t know what I’m talking about – but if you’re at the Knight stage of anything, you’ll know just what I mean 🙂
    As a member of the Cups family, you would think that this chap is all about those Watery traits (the fish on his tabard, the waves on his horse’s bridle) such as love, compassion, warmth….but as a Knight, he also has a lot of intellectual, logical Airy energy blowing around too (check out those wings on his helmet and spurs) and for me, this Watery/Airy combination manifests in a character who is more interested in examining  his own experience of emotions than anyone else’s.  Looking again at the river in the card, I can confirm that point of view by the almost arid landscape that is clearly not much nourished by the water that runs through it.
    This is a guy who will lovingly compose a ballad for you, but only really for the pleasure of hearing himself sing!  He will sweep you off for a weekend to Paris, but forget to buy Euros….. Oh don’t get me wrong – he will declare his undying love and genuinely mean it.  Until he doesn’t and you’re dumped unceremoniously from a great height.  And he’s off again on his Great Quest…. do you recognise him?!
    So from now until the moon becomes dark, the disengaged emotional pleasures of the Knight of Cups ebbs from my life as does his dilly-dallying abstractedness.  Thank goodness!
    I wonder whose energies will take his place?!